As an improvement in the rapid, automatic and economical processing of poultry on a commercial scale, our present invention relates to the successive evisceration of a series of birds as they are advanced continuously suspended by their legs through use of shackles depending from an overhead conveyor. Prior to reaching our machine for pulling the viscera package therefrom, the birds are defeathered, an opening is provided at the vents and, normally, the heads are removed.
Also, the gizzard, intestines and vent will have been pulled out of the cavity and draped over the side of the bird. The upwardly and inwardly facing openings are exposed to a row of tools radiating outwardly in spoke-like fashion from a slightly inclined rotor that is, in turn, timed in accordance with the speed of the conveyor. Thus, each opening receives a single tool which is inserted into the cavity to a point of capture of a portion of the viscera package.
The tool is guided into the cavity and after it is fully inserted, a finger performs a gathering action by swinging to a point of hooking around a relatively small diameter connection between the crop and the stomach. Such viscera portion is then brought to bear against and in partial surrounding relationship to a rigid post on the tool without any severe grasping, clamping, pinching or other damaging action.
Spaced abutments on the post prevent slip-off, and the viscera connection becomes more-or-less entwined, first between the finger and one of the abutments, then across the bight of the finger between the post and such bight, and finally between the finger and the other post. It is the resulting twining in a sinuous manner for attaching the viscera connection to the tool which is utilized for effectively joining the package to the tool before pull-out commences. And no more movement of the finger within the confined space in the body cavity take place until the finger and the package are outside the cavity, whereupon the finger is returned to its releasing position.